General health condition of patients hospitalized after an incident of in‐hospital or out‐of hospital sudden cardiac arrest with return of spontaneous circulation

BACKGROUND: Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is one of the main reasons for admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), which influences discharge in a good neurological state. HYPOTHESIS: To analyze patients who had recovery of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) during hospitalization in the ICU using the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). METHODS: The study group comprised 78 patients after SCA (35 after out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest [OHCA] and 43 after in‐hospital cardiac arrest [IHCA]) with ROSC who were admitted to the ICU of Regional Hospital No. 5 in Sosnowiec from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016. GOS was used to assess neurological status. Basic anthropological data, with, arterial blood pH, lactate concentration (LAC), and catecholamine treatment were also collected. RESULTS: In the study group, 32.1% (n = 25/78) of patients survived until ICU discharge and 30.8% (n = 24/78) until discharge from the hospital. SCA in cardiac mechanism was more common in OHCA than in the IHCA group (OHCA vs. IHCA: 85.7% vs. 62.8%, p = .02). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups for neurological status assessed using GOS. There was no statistically significant difference between LAC or arterial blood pH and survival to ICU discharge, survival to hospital discharge, or mortality. The need for using catecholamines increased the mortality rate (GOS 1) (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Most patients after RSOC were assigned to a group other than GOS 1, and 25% of all subjects belonged to GOS 4–5. Treatment with catecholamines was more common in patients who do not survive hospital or ICU discharge.